The Good, The Bad And The Dirty From UFC 167

UFC 167 took place on Saturday night in Las Vegas with Georges St-Pierre defeating Johny Hendricks in the main event to retain the UFC welterweight title in an epic main event. Right after the fight ended, St-Pierre told Joe Rogan that he planned on stepping away from the sport for awhile and wasn’t sure if he would retire. Controversy ensued after the fight as the fans in the MGM Grand Garden Arena booed the decision and the fans on social media and media thought that Hendricks won the fight.

After every event we will be posting this new feature on the website and hope that you enjoy this.

The Good

1) Johny Hendricks- Usually you never think the loser of the main event can come out on the good side. BetweenTheRopes.com had scored the main event Hendricks winning 48-47, giving Hendricks Rounds 1,2,4 and giving St-Pierre Rounds 3 and 5. Hendricks took the champion down a couple times during the fight, rocked the champion on a couple occasions and was able to stuff numerous takedown attempts from the champion. The biggest issue for Hendricks going into the fight was his cardio, as he had never been in a five round fight. “Bigg Rigg” cardio was able to hold up throughout the fight. Hendricks inflicted more damage to St-Pierre and gave the champion the biggest test of his career. UFC President Dana White stated at the post-fight press scrum that a rematch will happen in the near future.

2) Robbie Lawler- People were overlooking Lawler heading into his fight with Rory MacDonald as the odds had Lawler as much as +340 underdog and that MacDonald with a win could gain a title at the winner of the main event. Lawler used inside and outside leg kicks to offset MacDonald from utilizing his jab and his power shots that rocked the Canadian especially in the third round. Lawler said after the fight that he was wanting a title shot if St-Pierre is going to retire or going to take an indefinite leave of absence.

3) Tyron Woodley- Going into his fight with Josh Koscheck, fans were thinking this was going to be the one fight on the main card would be a snooze fest. It was anything but that as moments into the fight Woodley knocked down Koscheck with an overhand right and the fight was almost stopped. Near the end of the round, Woodley landed a right hook then sent Koscheck dropping to the mat and referee Herb Dean stopped the fight. It was a great win to get Woodley back on track after a disappointing loss to Jake Shields at UFC 161 in June. It showed Woodley has great power in both hands and combined with his wrestling credentials, he is a force in the welterweight division.

The Bad

1) Dana White- The UFC President was very critical of St-Pierre’s comments inside the cage when the champion had stated that he was going to be stepping away from the cage and wasn’t if he was going to retire. White said this regarding St-Pierre’s comments.

“You owe it to the fans, you owe it to that belt, you owe it to the company and you owe it to Johny Hendricks to give him that opportunity to fight again,” White stated during the post-fight press conference. “Unless you’re going to retire. there’s no, ‘I’m going to take a cruise, I’m going to take a hiatus and be gone for two years, I’m going to take a leave of absence, I’m gonna,’ whatever the hell it was he’s saying, it doesn’t work that way.”

After the press conference, White spoke with reporters and cooled off after talking to St-Pierre. White said everything was cool with the champion and was hoping to make the rematch between St-Pierre and Hendricks soon.

The UFC President should have taken a deep breath before he flew off the handle on St-Pierre before talking to him. St-Pierre is their biggest star and pay-per-view attraction as the MGM Grand was sold out with selling 14,856 with a $5.7 million dollar gate. White is the type of the guy who flies off the handle and speaks off the cuff on anything and everything. But in this case, for the guy who has done everything that the UFC has asked from him, White should have talked to St-Pierre.

The Dirty

1) Judging- Like we had stated earlier that we had scored the main event for Hendricks and a vast majority of fans and the media had done the same. The judges in the main event were Sal D’Amato, Tony Weeks and Glenn Trowbridge. D’Amato and Weeks scored the fight 48-47 for St-Pierre and Trowbridge scored it for Hendricks. The key round was the first round as it was obvious that Hendricks won the second and fourth round and St-Pierre won the third and fifth round. If you look at the first round, St-Pierre got a takedown, but Hendricks got right up. Hendricks was then closing the distance and was able to control the distance land powerful shots.

A lot of people were saying after the fight that maybe MMA needs to go to the half-point system that was done in Pride. I also scored the fight under the Pride rules and had it 49-47.5 for Hendricks.

Is the judging perfect in the sport? Not even close, as when you have a main event as big as this one was, you need to have the best of the best in there and that wasn’t the case on Saturday night.

Will MMA in the United States use the half-point system as was done in Pride? What is the solution to the judging problem?

About Steve Muehlhausen

Steven was a featured UFC columnist for Bleacher Report and a writer for MMASucka.com. He was also the host of the MMA show "The Fight Club Chicago" which aired for three years at various websites. You can email Steve at stevemuehlhausen@yahoo.com.